The Government has announced further changes to the Home Information Pack (HIP) regime by introducing the necessity for a ‘Property Information Questionnaire’ (PIQ) for all properties marketed for sale after 5 April 2009. The PIQ will provide basic, useful information about a property including a summary of the leasehold if any and will be contained within the HIP.
In addition, the current arrangement whereby a copy of the lease is the only additional requirement in the HIP for leasehold property sales is (from 1 January 2009) a permanent requirement.
The temporary 'first day marketing' exemption from having to have a HIP is being removed from 6 April 2009 . Thus a basic' HIP must be in place before a property is marketed - providing certainty to consumers that a HIP will be available.
Agents will still be able to advise about properties they expect to come on the market, but not to market them until a HIP is prepared.
There are other changes to the HIPs regime of lesser significance.
